Well as I sit here in Fes I thought while I have a wifi connection I will begin my ride report.

The trip was mentioned with some riding buddies a couple of years ago and a plan was hatched. I tried to get a pass to ride on my own, but my missus was having none of it. "the going will be too tough" and "it will be too difficult two up" I protested, but it fell on deaf ears, "you're not going abroad on that bike without me" was the only reply Jack came back with. This went on for several weeks and in the end I held my hands up and had to say fair play for her digging her heels in and being so determined.

A couple of our friends we originally planned to go with had to drop out due to work commitments and an emigration to Canada, but a couple of keen friends soon came on board when the opportunity arised.

Bikes were prepped, tyres were bought and we were all set to roll........ Then Brittany Ferries (the company who we were to sail from the UK to Spain with) went on strike and suspended all crossings.

Options were weighed, phone calls, emails and texts were frantically sent back and forth, the ferry was back on..... Then off again..... Bollocks we'd not even turned a wheel and we were having an adventure!

Time to break out the savings tin!

The cash was counted and I went to get some changed into euros.

Anyway the company put on extra crossings from Poole to Cherburg and we managed to get a place on there and Chubbythumper got a ferry from Ireland to Cherbourg the day before us, so all worked out in the end.

Due to the strikes we left a couple of days earlier so we had an extra two days worth of Adventure ahead of us!

Meds were packed, not sure if Jack's gone overboard or not

The ferry arrives at Poole

The team left to right Frog AKA Pete, V Twins for me AKA Posh Rob (he's from Oxford!) Chubbythumper AKA Terry and Mrs. DeeGee AKA Jack.

Signing off for now as breakfast awaits and we have a day off the bike today to have a wander round Fez.

So pretty much all my pictures are uploaded and I've an hour or so before I'm back in work this evening. The motorcycle travelling is absolutely top drawer, but when you get home you get home with an all mighty bang!

Anyway, buckle up grab a brew and off we go

Here's a proper introduction to the team;

Jack (my missus)

Chubbythumper AKA Terry

V Twins for me AKA Rob

Frog AKA Pete

And little old me AKA DeeGee/DG/Gav Flying the KTM Colours

So as mentioned before we had a bit of an adventure, before we set off due the the strike actions of the French crew on the ferry. We all managed to get on an alternative ferry though on a different crossing two days earlier than planned, this meant Jack had to wangle another day off work and also she had to go in on the Sunday to make sure all wages were done for the staff. Monday arrived and we were like a pair of kids on Christmas Eve, we had waited soooooo long for this adventure.

Bike packed to the gunnels and we were off.

We made a short stop on the way to Poole to borrow a friends GoPro camera, quick chat and a brew and we were on the way again.

Garage stop for fuel and water

We eventually found our way to the Port on the South coast of England, parked up and waited for the others to arrive.

Rob soon followed on his SE

Then came Pete, followed by the boat.

Once on board the bikes were strapped down we went upstairs and began the banter and Pete got stripped off!

As Terry was travelling from Northern Ireland he had travelled on an overnight ferry the day before, still sailing into Cherbourg therefore we had all booked into a cheap Formula 1 hotel for the night. We got off the ferry in the wet darkness and made the short journey to the hotel where Terry was waiting for us.

The following morning hadn't changed, it was an early wet start to the day.

We'd not been going all that long when some of the "older" team members needed to relieve their swollen bladders

Oi!!

We made good progress and found our way down near a town called Dax in southern France, fuel and a brew to decide what to do.

We decided that a motel round the back of the fuel station was too expensive for what it was and decided to head into the next town to find digs........

We rode and tried several hotels, some were derelict and the rest were full, time was pressing on as it was near 21.00, we had been on the road since 7.30 and we were getting pretty desperate. We got our heads together and pressed on further south aiming for a hotel which we'd punched into the satnav and luckily we came up trumps as the bright lights illuminated the hotel at the side of the road. Once the bikes were secured and the luggage removed we headed for the restaurant.......... Which was closed

Luckily good old Micky D's was round the corner so we headed there and managed to get some food in ouir bellies before that closed on us too! It was licensed too!

Early breakfast the following day and we were on the road rolling by 8.00 Pretty uneventful day as we hooked up the ipod and listened to some tunes while we munched away the miles.

Over the border into Spain.

Fuel stop where Rob and Pete took advantage of the shade.

Fuel stop and Jack had time to check out her phone.

Did I mention Jack was on her phone?

We got a place to stay just north of Madrid in La Cabrera in Spain.

We ate and dined there. A real character owned the place, he recommended the cheeseboard for dessert which I asked for :huh

I await your report.I was going to Eastern Europe,but i'm hoping to get on the Brittany Ferries boat
this Sunday.Heading to Morocco because of the temperature(bought the wrong Hein Gericke trousers :) ).
Still getting the bike set up,swines that sell the carb jets were closed for some unexplained reason,and i've
just been sent to London with a 40' trailer full of vodka,so Sunday might be a push!(The Suzuki XF650 Freewind
is struggling to push 70mph with an 'open' pipe fitted,and the report i read in upjetting had a typo,ie,currently #52.5
main jet,and the report said #160-think they meant #60,but it'll be trial & error.Have lifted needles full.Should have known,it's a #160 in my single carbed DR650SE!).Plan 'B' is to drop the needles again and attach the 40kg ()
standard exhaust can!
See how it goes!

So how long you got to do the trip in? have you got a plan per day how many miles etc?
looking forward to the journey

Click to expand...

We were away for 3 weeks in total and planned to have 2 weeks in Maroc, no real mileage plans per day, just picked out a town/city and headed in that direction. When we had enough we stopped and searched for digs.